Bookkeeping machine



C. H. BRIGHT, JR. BOOKKEEPING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 20, 1919.

1,41 1,679. Patented Apr. 4, 1922.

2'SHEETSSHEET 5: amvewtoz Snow;

r OFFICE;

onannn a. BRIGHT, an, or Mnnrnrs, rnnnnssnn BOOKKEEPING MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent. 7

' Patented Apr. 4, 1922.

Application filed November 20, 1919. Serial No. 339,425.

To all whom it may concern:

lie it known that l, CLAUDE H. BRIGHT, Jr, a citizen of the United States, residing at lllemphis in the county of Shelby and Estate of Tennessee, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bookkee ing hi achines; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

invention relates to bookkeeping machines; and particularly to printing instruments designed to be used by accountants as aid to posting in a ledger, or other vehicle tor records of classified accounts, the vhricus items or? debit and credit taken from. the cash books, sales slips or other day book or original record or" daily transactions; and as an aid in comparing: the entries made in the ledger with the entries in the day books, in order to enable errors to be detected or the correctness of the ledger entries to be proved.

By the term ledger used herein 1 mean any book or other device in which classified accounts are recorded; and by day book I mean any book or sheet, such as a journal, cash book, salesslips and the like, in or on which original entries of transactions are made at the time of the transaction. The lelger page may be broadly designated as the work surface or work sheet.

Que object of my invention is to take a copy, on an impressionstrip by transfer printing of each debit or credit entry in the ledger .nn'iediately after the entry has been made, whereby exact duplicates of the items entered in the ledger will appear on the impression strip in a column of items arranged in the order in which the items were on tered.

r. nether object is to print upon the ledger page the date of the transaction and page number of the day book (or the identi'iying number or the sales slip), from which the item has been posted, at the same time that an exact copy of the item is impressed upon the impression strip.

lVith these and other objects in view, that will be revealed in I the description and claims, invention comprises in general the combination of a transfer-printing or duplicating device. adapted to receive an impression from an inked item on a work sheet,

and a printing device adapted at the same time to make a printed impression, as by cs, on the work sheetj It also comprises various sub-combinations and parts as more specifically described and claimed hereinafter.

Althoughl shall refer in general to both the negative transfer printing or duplicating device and the positive type-surfaced printing device, as printing devices, the former will be designated specifically wherevgr it may be necessary to distinguish them.

in the accompanying drawings, 1

Figure 1 is a plan view of my machine partly in section. r

Figure 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of Figure 3.

Figure 3 is a front elevation.

Figure l: is an end elevation viewed from the right of Figure 3, the dating andnumboring device having been removed.

Figure 5 is a top plan view of the base plate.

Figure 6 is a section on the line 6-6 of Figure 3.

Figure 7 is an end elevation viewed from the right of Figure 3, showing the transferprinter resting on a ledger page.

Figure 8 is a section on the line 8-8 of Figure 3.

hgure 9 illustrates a fragment of the page of a cash book.

Figure 10 illustrates fragments of two ledger pages with one debit and one credit entry on each.

In the drawings and specification the same reference characters are used to identify the same parts in the several views.

The machine comprises, broadiy,a fiat base plate A on which is a pivotally-mounted r ame carrying a selective and progressive printing device, B, adapted to make an ink impression upon a sheet on which the base plate rests, and a transfer device (3 carrying aninl absorptive strip adapted to receive an impression of an item freshly written upon said sheet. The apparatus may be manipulated by two fingers inserted in the two loops of the finger piece L, and thereby held or placed for operation.

The base plate A is provided with three alined bearing ears 1, 2 and S, that may be struck up from the plate by slitting and bending the metal or other material of which the plate is made and these serve as pivot bearings for the oscillatory printing frame.

The holes 4 are rivet or screw holes for securing to the plate A the fingerpiece L, a pin 75 for operating the inker and stepping do of the progressive printing wheels, an the pivot bearing 58 for the pawl 58 thatfeeds the impression strip. The front marginai edges 5 of the base A lie in the same strai ht line and constitute a line ga e, and t e projecting point 6 constitutes 'a' e iitdicator, spaced from the line gage one-hammers. By thestraight edge 5 and indicating pointer 6 the machine may be jnstifledwith respectto the ruled lines of a' iedger orother accounting page. The two printing devices B and C are so mounted at theyimpress or bear uponthe surface of lihe worksheet in *alinement with each wher in 'a"zene lying between the marginal fine 5 and the line indicator 6. The indicator?) projects fromthe body of the plate dit apoint between the printing devices B andC. The form of this base plate 'andflie relation of the printing and transfer devices thereto allow the instrumentto p be acduraftely adjusted to printing position without obscuring from the eyes of the operator any of the surface he needs to see. The printing can therefore be done with accurate spaeiiigand in parallel lines.

The pivotally mounted or oscillating h a'ine llhat carries 'the two printing devices B and C is formed in two parts that are separable, the part carrying the device B being so mounted and connected-to" the part earryingthedevice C that the device B with its fm'tdeportion may be readily separated by pullin it endwise1(to the left as illustratedin are 3) leaving the base with the device C to be used singly. Each part of the said'fname is of the general form of the letter U laid on its side, the terminals of the paraldel "arms or branches of? one forming studs movably coupled to sockets in the cross member of the other, thearms of the two name parts pointin the same way. The cross member of the rame part for the transfer printing-device G is designated 10; 11 is its'upper arm and 12 its lower arm. Thenmnsll and 12 fit through openings inthevside plate 30 of the transfer printer, and thearm 12 is jou rnaled in the bearings 2 and 3* and preve-nted' from endwise movement by the plate 30 and a nut13. A spring 14 "surrounds the arm 12; it has one end bearing on the'side plate 30, and is biased or exerts its pressure to elevate the frame and transfer printing device C. The cross memher 01E the other frame part is designated 15 and its parallel arms, 16 and 17. l The arm T6 carries the printing device B and the anal? is journaled'in the bearing 1. The cross *member 10 is provided with two sockets 18 and 19, the latter of which is in ali'nement'w ith the bearings 1, '2 and "3. Into edges clamped between the clamping plate 36 by screws 37 A flanged posedplate 31; the two being spaced apart and brid ed by an impression member and striprgui e, a roll holder and a winding spool. The plate 31 has a member 32 bent at right angles thereto and extendin across the space between the two plates. he end of the member 32 is bent again parallel with the plate 30, and provides'an ear 33, bearin against saidplate. In the plates anc l ill-"and the car 33 are alined holes through which the arm 11 of the frame is passed. A locking device 34 is adapted to engage a notch inthe end ofsaid arm and lock the side plate 31 in'place.

The impression member over which the impression strip is passed is secured to the transverse member 32. A piece of rubber fabric is shown at 35, having its opposite ar 32 and a late '38 is secured by the said screws 37 to the bar 32with its flanges embracing the bar and sli' htly confining the fabric against lateral ul 'ng.

Therolldiolder is designated 40, and consists of a smooth, round pin or bar ri 'd'ly secured to plate 31'and fitting removab y in aperforation in the plate 30.

The winding spool consists of a hollow, smooth-surfaced cylinder 50. rotatably held to'the arser by the screw 51. and having notches 52 in the end'adjacent the plate 30, said notches being for the purpose of engaging with a pin, 53, on the rotary driving stud 54, thus constituting a clutch.

Byreleasing' the locking device 34, the side plate 31 may be separated from the plate 30, carrying with it the impression strip guide roll holder and winding spool.

An intermittent grip mechanism is provided, for winding the spool of ratchet and pawl type. A ratchet wheel 55 is secured to the'rotary stud 54, which is journaled in the plate 30 and bearing strap 56, between which and the plate 30, the ratchet wheel is confined. A locking dog 57 prevents reverse movement of the ratchet wheel. A pawl 58 is pivoted between lugs 58' riveted tothe base plate. This pawl curves upward toward its end and has two pins 59 proje'cting laterally across the plane of the ratchet wheel. These pins are spaced a distance apart of two ratchet teeth. A s ring 60 urges the'pawl constantly towar the ratchet wheel. The proportions and. the relation toeach'o'ther of the pawl'and the oscillating frame and ratchet wheel thereon are such thatwhen' the frame is raised the outer pin 59 of the pawl bears on the lower edge of the ratchet wheel as shown in F igures4 and 6; and when the frame is lowered to impressing position the inner pin 59 will rest above the wheel. The return movement of the frame will effect engagement between the ratchet teeth and pins, rotate the spool, and advance the impression strip, which is indicated in dotted lines in Figure 2, drawing it from the roll holder 40 across the cushionface of the impression member and strip guide 35, a distance equal to the spacing desired.

The printing elements of the device B are shown as those of the. familiar dating and numbering stamp, and I have shown them conventionally. The type disks are sleeved upon the arm 16 of the separable portion of the oscillating frame. The right hand four disks carry the digits, and are intended to represent the wheels of a numbering stamp adapted to number consecutively up to 9999, The two left hand wheels are merely illu trative of month and day printing devices, intended to be adjusted by hand, and may be type bands. The numbering wheels are designed to be operated by the usual advancing and carrying devices, and may be of a type, well known in the art, whereby the machine may be set to print the same number as many times as desired.

The swinging member that carries the digit-wheelsoperating dogs is shown at 70, and at 71 is illustrated a swinging ink-pad holder pivoted on the links 72 which are hung on the arm 16. The ink-pad holder has an arm 7 3 with a perforation through its end. Riveted to the plate A is an angular plate 74 carrying a pin 75 which projects toward the cross bar 15 of the oscillating frame and lies parallel with the arms 16 and 17. The pin 75 passes through the perforation of the arm 73 of the ink-pad holder and through an eye or link 76 carried by the swinging dog-operating member 70.

By reason of the engagement of the dog-op erating member and the inlrpad holder 71 with the pin? 5, a movement of=the oscillating frame toward printing position will effect actuation of. the member 70 to adjust the digit wheels, and of the ink-pad holder 71 to remove the ink pad. The return movement of the oscillating frame will restore the dog operating member and carry this ink-pad against the type wheels.

In removing the printing device B and the corresponding part of the oscillating frame, endwise movement of the frame will slip the link 76 and perforated arm 73 off from the pin 7 5 as the arms 16 and 17 are drawn out of engagement with the cross bar 10 and bearing 1.

The digit wheels as well as the date wheels may he of the sort adapted to be set by hand. In posting from day books having a large number of items on a page it might be desirable to have a hand-set dating and numbering stamp. In posting from serially numbered sales slips, the use of the automatic serially progressed digit-wheels stamp would be most useful.

Ordinarily, a bookkeeper, in posting a ledger from a book of original entry takes the original entries item by item, and successively enters them on the ledger in the appropriate accountto which the respective items belong. Taking up one entry at a time in the book of original entry he turns the pages of the ledger until he finds the appropriate account, then he first posts in the ledger the date of the transaction, next the folio or page number of the original entry book in which the item appears, and next the amount of the item. If errors have been .made in posting in this way it is an arduous task to turn to each account and check the entries with the original book of entry.

In using my device each item (either of debit or 'credit) will be entered in the proper ledger account with pen and ink. As each item is entered, my machine will be placed on the page in proper position and the impression strip brought into contact with the entry. A true copy of the item is thus transferred to the strip, and on. the return of the transfer printer to it position of rest the strip will be fed a line space. If the dating and numbering device is in place with the types properly set, the date of the transaction and the folio or page number will be printed in the correct position alined with the debit or credit entry. In posting from sales slip the progressive numbering types will correctly print in the ledger the numbers of the sales slips provided they are posted from serially. Thus the labor of posting entries with pen and ink is saved. But of chief moment is the fact that a check or tally strip containing an exact duplicate of each item posted in the ledger is obtained by the same impression operation that entered the date of the original transaction and the identifying mark of the original entry book. The check or tally strip. and so much of it as is needed, may be removed. from the machine and the items thereon arranged in column can be readily compared with the items in the book of original entry.

In Figure 9 is shown a fra ment of page 127 of a cash book, and in Tigure 10 are shown two pages of a ledger containing the accounts of the first. two persons whose names appear on page 127 of the cash book. The first item in the cash book is a credit of $10.00 for the account of Jno. A. Smith. This credit will be posted in Smiths account in the ledger, and a duplicate impression will at once be taken on the impression strip of my machine. The second item in the cash book is an item of $2.00 which is next posted in the ledger to the credit of D. K. Jones, and a copy thereof at once taken by my machine. Thusthe bookkeeper proceeds, say, through all the entries in the cash book for one day. The impression strip, containing in column arrangement all the items credited in the ledger for that day from the cash book, will then be removed,

the numbers thereon added up and the total compared with the total of the cash book entries. If the totals diagree an error is shown, which may be detected by laying the impression strip alongside the entries in the cash book and comparing them one by one. In the example illustrated, a discrepancy of $9.00 is shown between the original cash book entries and the ledger entries posted therefrom. Detail comparison shows that A. B. James was credited with $29.92 in the ledger instead of with $20.92, as the cash book shows. No check mark should be set opposite the cash book items when posting, but after comparison of each item in the cash book with the corresponding items on the strip. all items on the cash book found to have been correctly entered should be checked. It will be apparent that in posting a days transactions, all credit items should be posted at one time and the debit items at another, so that a set of impressions on. the strip will represent a corresponding set of entries in the book of original entry. 7

The impression strip is preferably made of the ordinary bibulous paper used for press-copying In mounting it on the machine, the catch 34 should be released, and the separable plate carrying the roll holder, spool and resilient guide taken off. A rolled strip should then be slipped endwise over the roll holder 40, one end seized and a short length drawn ofl", passed beneath the resilient guide and impression part 35, the end moistened and attached to the spool. The parts should then be replaced and locked. One or two turns of the ratchet will firmly afiix the strip to the spool.

Having thus described my invention and the mode of using, what'I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is: p

1. The combination of a transfer printing device adapted to take a copy from a work surface, with a printing device having a printing-character carrying face adapted to imprint upon a work surface, and a support common to both devices.

2. The combination of a transfer-printing device adapted to take a copy from a work surface, with a printing device ha'ving a printing-character carrying face adapted to imprint upon a work surface, a support common to both devices, means movable on said support toward and from printing position and carrying said printing devices.

3. The combination of a transfer-printing device adapted to take a copy from a work surface, with aprinting device having a printing-character carrying face adapted to imprint upon a work surface, a support common to both devices, movable frame members mounted on the support and corn nected to more in unison toward and from printing position and carrying the printing members.

4. The combination of a ti'ainfer-printing device adapted to take a copy from a work surface, with a printing device having a printing-character carrying face adapted to imprint upon a work surface, a support common to both devices, frame means pi oted to said support and adapted to oscillate toward and from printing position and carrying'said printing devices.

5. The combination of a transfer-printing device adapted to take a copy from a work urface, with a printing device having a 'printing-character carrying face adapted to imprint upon a work surface, a support common to both devices, and means whereby the device having the printing-chaincter carrying face may be disconnected.

6. The combination of a transfer-printing device adapted to take a copy from a work surface, with a printing device l'iaving a printing-character carrying face adapted to imprint upon a work-surface, a support common to both devices, frame members for the printing devices movable relatively to the support toward and, from printing position and carrying the printing devices, and means whereby the frame member for the device having the printing-character-carrying face may be disconnected so as to allow the transfer-printing device to operate alone.

7. The combination of a transfer-printing device adapted to take a copy from a work surface, with a printing device having a printirig-character carrying face adapted to imprint upon a work surface, a support com mon to both devices, frame members pivoted to said support and arranged to oscillate toward and from printing position and carrying two printing devices; said frame members havingrespectively interlocking studs and sockets adapted to dctachably connect them so as to operate in unison,or allow one to be removed.

members for one of said bars, and means on the frame of the transfer-printing device adapted to engage and detachablv connect with the ends of the said parallel bars.

9. The combination of a transfer-printing device having means for progressively advancing a copy-receiving strip, with a print ing device having selectively shiftable typecarrying elements, and a support common to both devices.

10. The combination of a plate having a line-gage atl its margin, a line indicator projecting a line space from said marginal line-gage, printing mechanism mounted on the plate and movable to print on a zone between the line gage and the line indicated by the line indicator.

11. The combination of a plate having a line-gage at its margin, movable frame mechanism carrying alined printing devices, a line indicator projecting a line space from said marginal line-gage from a point between said printing devices, and means for constraining the movements of said frame mechanism to print on a Zone between the line-gage and the line indicated by the line indicator.

12. The combination of a plate having a line-gage at its margin, alined bearings on the plate, an oscillating frame journaled in the bearings, printing mechanism mounted on the frame, and constrained to move so as to impress a Zone of a work surface adjacent and parallel to the line-gage.

13. A transfer-printing device comprising a base plate, an oscillatory frame mounted thereon and. biased to inoperative position, an impression member on the frame, means for intermittently feeding an impression strip across the face of the impression member comprising a spool, a ratchet wheel thereon, a ratchet dog, a pawl pivoted on the base and arranged to advance the ratchet wheel. on the return movement of the frame.

14-. In a transfer-printing device, a base plate, an oscillating frame adapted to carry an impression strip, a feeding-device for the impression strip comprising a ratchet wheel, a dog, a pawl pivoted on the plate, and having a plurality of ratchet-engaging teeth, means for yieldingly urging the pawl teeth into engagement with the ratchet teeth, whereby on the return movement of the frame from printing position the ratchet wheel will be advanced.

15. In a transfer-printing device, a base plate, an oscillating fran'ie adapted to carry an impression strip pivoted thereto, a feed ing-device for the impression strip comprising a feed wheel, an intermittent grip device pivoted on the base plate at a point in advance of the pivot for the oscillatory frame and having one end adapted to rest against the lower portion of the feed wheel when the frame is in its inoperative position of rest, means for yieldingly urging the arm toward the feed wheel, and a feed-wheeloperating means on the pawl adapted to be guided around the feed wheel during the movement of the frame to printing position and to advance the feed wheel during the return movement of the frame.

16. In a transfer-printing device, a stripcarrying frame comprising a pair of side plates, a roll holder, strip guide and winding spool mounted between the plates, and a detachable connection whereby one of the plates may be readily removed to free the ends of the devices mounted between.

17. In a transfer-printing device, a strip carrying frame comprising a pair of side plates, a roll holder, a winding spool and a strip guide, affixed to one of said side plates, and means whereby to removably secure the latter mentioned side plate with said affixed parts to the other side plate.

18. In a transfenprinting device, a stripcarrying frame, comprising a pair of side plates, a rotary winding spool, mounted on one of said plates, a driving device for the spool mounted on the other plate, cooperative interlocking parts on the spool and driving device, and means for removably securing the detachable plate to the other.

19. In a transfer-printing device, a strip carrying frame, comprising opposite side plates. a roll holder, winding spool and strip guide between the plates, respectively affixed to one of them. and detachably connected to the other, and means for removably locking the plates in operative position, comprising a bar affixed to one plate, and extending through a perforation in the other, and a locking device cooperating between the removable plate and bar.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

CLAUDE H. BRIGHT, JR. 

